Pacific abalone, Haliotis discus hannai Ino, is one of the most economically important species in Haliotdea family in China. It is naturally distributed along the coast of Japan, Korean Peninsula, and parts of the seaside of Liaoning and Shandong province in China. Pacific abalone is dominantly dioecious with external fertilization, and sexes are easily distinguished as an individual approaches sexual maturity: ovaries are dark blue and testes cream to white. Natural spawning occurs during July to August every year in Yellow and Bo Sea. The coasts of Dalian in Liaoning and Yantai, Weihai, Qingdao in Shandong are the main distribution in China. Pacific abalone is sorted to the species of moderate size in Haliotidea; however, it has the largest size among the members of Haliotdea distributed in China. Based on the tender meat textures and delicate favor, Pacific abalone has the best quality, highest price and most favorable popularity in China, which is generally called soft gold, and ranked the lead of Eight Precious Seafood. Pacific abalone is the exclusively commercial farming species in Yellow and Bo Sea in our country.
According to the depiction of Aquaculture Ministry of P. R. China on Pacific abalone, the wild type shell color is greenish brown or dark brown, generally called wild type color; while the shell color of the cultivated stocks is green, simply called wild cultivated type color. However, distinguished from the two types color abalone described above, another type color abalone with orange shell color is observed along the coast in northern China. Orange shell color individuals are the mutant type in Pacific abalone. The orange shell color abalone amounts only to less than 0.01% of the total stocks. With the exception of shell color, no differences in other major qualitative traits from common abalone are found. It is inferred the feasibility to develop a new abalone strain with identical orange shell color through systematic cross and selective breeding.
Comparison between common abalone and orange shell color ones shows that the latter has brighter shell color, and furthermore, higher disease resistance. The bright shell color makes the abalone more popular and a higher price in the market, and will increase the market share; while the high disease resistance trait is advantageous to the reduction of disease occurrence in the culture of the abalone, and will increase economic benefits. Orange shell color abalone performs a significant superiority in the traits of economic importance. Therefore, the orange shell color abalone has great commercial value.
Theories and experiments in genetic breeding demonstrate that hybridization (or inbreeding) and selective breeding are important approaches to develop new breeds. Many new breeds in agriculture, husbandry and fisheries are established by such methods.